Affirmative action is keeping blacks out of the legal profession. Get out the crayolas and color me shocked. As the article points out, good intentions aren't enough, and when they implement racist policies, they're all the more egregious.

[Late evening update]

Jeff Goldstein has further thoughts.

It's always these 'them' folks isn't it.

By all means, critique the following, or offer your own analysis.

My take on the AA ideologues:

1. There are observable statistical differences in behavior (and inferred traits) amongst various ethnicities.

2. The US political system recognizes equivalent political status of people, regardless of these differences (and their practical consequences).

3. The ideologues want to be seen as "good".

4. The ideologues can't (or won't) simultaneously recognize the differences, but ignore them for purposes of political status. That is, they can't (or won't) treat as political equals those groups that they don't recognize as social, economic, or intellectual equals.

5. This tension between fact (of differences) and faith (the differences don't matter for political rights) creates guilt in the ideologue. How can they be "good" if they believe others are inferior, and don't act consistently (i.e. hypocritically) with that belief?

6. To alleviate their guilt, they join the cult of affirmative action. AA becomes a religious practice. They participate in its rituals and its creeds. They defend its dogma against its deniers. And the practical consequences of AA are irrelevant. The religious aspects, and the psychological effects, are what matters.

Here is what I don't understand:

Why not join the cult of America? The principle creeds include:

All Men are created equal.
All Men have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (implicitly, in that order).

and so on. It seems acceptable to join a civic religion that simultaneously recognizes that all people have different attributes, but the same political rights. Why sign on to a different religion?

Thanks for any sincere thoughts.

If you have only scolding to offer, donate it to someone you can influence with it.